NEW GRASS
The sponsorship may have
changed over the years, going
from Wachovia (2003–08) to
Wells Fargo, which purchased
Wachovia (2011–present), but one
constant has been the date of
Charlotte’s Tour stop: Early May.
Temperatures in greater
Charlotte, on average, are about
10 degrees warmer in August,
when the PGA Championship
is usually played. When Quail
Hollow shut down to reno-
vate, the club switched from
predominantly ryegrass to
Bermudagrass, which is
much more heat tolerant.
The event’s defending
champion, Jimmy Walker,
grew up playing Bermu-
da courses in Texas and
Oklahoma, and he said he
thinks the grass change
will completely alter how
Quail Hollow plays.
“We’re all used to playing it
with ryegrass everywhere and bentgrass
greens and I know they have changed the
greens the last couple years, but it has the
potential to play really firm and really fast,”
Walker said at a pre-tournament press con-
ference in June. “That’s when golf, it can get
really hard. When you start losing control
of the golf ball, that’s when golf gets hard.
“… It’s just a matter of where the rough’s
at. Bermuda rough tends to fly a lot. You can
get some horrendous lies, so that’s some-
thing that guys are going to have to deal with.
Am I going to get the big jumper? Am I going
to get the really soft shot that comes out?
And even around the greens, Bermuda rough
is tough to chip out of. It’s very unpredict-
able and the greens will probably be fast.
That’s the biggest unknown I think.”
NEW HOLES
With the club already scheduled
to have a 90-day renovation
window after the conclusion of
the 2016 Wells Fargo Cham-
pionship, course architect
Tom Fazio recommend-
ed that Quail Hollow
use that time to make
some changes to sev-
eral holes. Per the
vsga.org
Defendi ng champion Jimmy Walker hopes to defend his title after battling Lyme Disease earlier this year.
Above: The finishing stretch at Quail Hollow, dubbed the Green Mile, will test the world’s best players. Rickie
Fowler tees off here on the par-3 16th in last year’s Wells Fargo Championship.
Charlotte Observer, after working with
three construction firms, these changes
were made:
No. 1 is now a par-4, 524-yard dogleg
right.
A new par-3 hole was built to replace
No. 2, which was eliminated in order to
extend No. 1.
No. 5, which was a par-5 hole, is now a
par-4 dogleg right.
Bunkers were added to No. 11 and the
green was pushed back.
Former Virginia Tech standout and
Quail Hollow member Johnson Wagner
offered this simple assessment of the new-
look course:
“It’s harder,” he told the Observer.
HIGHER SCORES
From 2010–16, the average winning score
of the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow was
13.7 under par, a number that included
Lucas Glover’s 15-under in 2011 and Rory
McIlroy’s 21-under, seven-stroke romp
in 2015. A longer layout with unfamiliar
grass should lead to a higher winning to-
tal, somewhere in the vicinity of 8-under
to 12-under, club president Johnny Harris
told PGA.com.
WHO’S IN?
All former PGA champions, the last five
U.S. Open champions and Open Champi-
onship winners (including 2017), the last
five Masters champions, current Senior
PGA champion Bernhard Langer, the low
15 scorers and ties from the 2016 PGA
Championship, and the low 20 scorers
from the 2017 PGA Professional National
Championship are in the field.
In addition, the top 70 money leaders
from the end of the 2016 WGC-Bridge-
stone to the 2017 Quicken Loans National
are in, as well as any member of the U.S.
or Europe Ryder Cup squads from 2016,
provided they are inside the top 100 of the
Official World Golf Ranking as of July 30.
Winners of any tournament co-sponsored
or approved by the PGA Tour since the
2016 PGA Championship are in as well.
Last year, Virginia-based club profes-
sionals Josh Speight and Rick Schuller
made the field via finishing in the top 20
at the 2016 PGA Professional National
Championship.
HOW TO WATCH
As in years past, TNT will carry the first
two rounds of the championship. CBS
will broadcast the Saturday and Sunday
rounds. The PGA Championship utiliz-
es a three-hole aggregate playoff should
there be a tie after 72 holes. Keegan
Bradley’s victory in 2011 marked the last
time the PGA Championship was decid-
ed in a playoff.
J U LY / A U G U ST 2 0 17 | V I R G I N I A G O L F E R
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